SONGWRITER IS NOT ALONE IN PROTEST OVER ACADEMY’S RESCISSION

A petition is being circulated among Academy members urging the board to overturn its decision to rescind the best-song Oscar nomination of Bruce Broughton’s “Alone Yet Not Alone” from a little-seen Christian movie by the same name. The Academy had previously decided that Broughton, a member of its music branch, breached its ethical guidelines when he wrote letters to fellow members of the branch asking them to give the song a listen. On Monday Broughton fought back, writing: “If my 70 or so emails constitutes a breach of that standard, why could the current Academy president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, consult on Academy Award-nominated projects like The Artist, The King’s Speech and others with a history as an Academy governor that far exceeds mine and at the same time produce the Governors’ Ball without having that look like a breach of the same standard?” Broughton is also finding support from Gerald Molen, an Oscar-winning producer of Schindler’s List and John Debney, who scored The Passion of the Christ. Debney took to Facebook to write: “As a member of the Academy, I’m ashamed by this act. The nominations for work in film are meant to be merit based. Finally, a song from a small film barely seen, was deemed worthy of nomination. That is the way it should work. But alas, the winds of PC and cronyism seem to be at work here.”